World renowned hard rock band High On Fire will release its new studio album De Vermis Mysteriis on April 3 via eOne Music. Recorded in Salem, Massachusetts' GodCity studios with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the 10 song effort -- touted as "direct, eye-opening and powerfully supernatural" -- is the band's sixth studio recording and the follow up to 2010's Snakes for the Divine which debuted at #62 on the Billboard Top 200 and has been called "wonderful" by The New York Times and "an exhilarating rush" by The Chicago Tribune.

De Vermis Mysteriis (or "Mysteries of the Worm") takes its title from a fictional grimoire created by Psycho author Robert Bloch and incorporated by H. P. Lovecraft into the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos (Lovecraft mentioned De Vermis Mysteriis as one of the books that "repeat the most hellish secrets learnt by early man"). The album carries a deeply mystical undercurrent, incorporating fantastical themes and lyrics detailing, among other things, time travel, a serum called liao that is made out of a black lotus and "a Jesus twin who can see the past through his ancestors' eyes." And that's just scratching the surface!

Musically, De Vermis Mysteriis is absolutely explosive, showcasing the California power trio's thundering roar and expanded harmonic and rhythmic palettes while the songs move confidently through multiple riffs and movements. High On Fire construct tough, burly stoner metal that is at once devastatingly epic and mercilessly metallic as superstar guitarist Matt Pike's sizzling ax and avenging-angel riffs fuse with Des Kensel's double-kick-drum onslaught and Jeff Matz's concrete crushing, Burton-esque bass guitar. Over the course of forty-five minutes, High On Fire have created an amalgamation of fantastical lyrical ideas and brute force musicianship anchored in an endlessly captivating, punkishly frantic sound. Simply put, the band generates awesome on demand and has a virtual chokehold on monolithic-sounding, masterfully crafted epic music. High On Fire is a savage bull in the china shop of modern metal.

They were crushingly good live; tight and powerful and mixed wonderfully (unlike the last record).

My problem was that Matt was calling out to the meatheads to get more violent and get a real pit going in a relatively small crowd. Egging on the worst part of the crowd when most everyone was into it and head-banging and listening and singing along rubbed me the wrong way. He got his wish, and the lunkheads who had skipped the two opening bands gamely started charging into people and swinging their arms like truncheons.

At which point I ducked to the back, waited for the break between songs when things might calm down a bit, but Matt said, "that's more like it!" or something to that effect and I left shaking my head.

There's yet another remaster of Lightning To The Nations? You'd think there'd be remasters for the first two Def Lep albums by now.

Speaking of NWOBHM, or NRWOTHM, these two new releases share those roots.

RAM - Death (Metal Blade)Pharaoh - Bury The Light (Cruz Del Sur)

I believe both are on their third albums. Swedish band RAM's Lightbringer (2008) and Philadelphia-based Pharaoh's Be Gone (2008) are also good. Still loving Christian Mistress' album the best by far though!

Finally got to hear the new Christian Mistress in it's entirety and it's... solid? Not a disappointment exactly, as there are a couple of songs that really blew me away ("Black TO Gold" and "Haunted Hunted"), but it doesn't hold a candle to their live show. It's a bit too restrained or something. I'm with Nate in that they absolutely killed me live, but for some reason this record doesn't. I'm sure I'll listen to it a bunch through the year but maybe my expectations were too high.

i found that it got a bit more involving the louder i played it (duh, big surprise). the low end filled out more too. the interplay is more exciting than it sounds like at first when all you can hear is davis and the leads wheedely-wheedelying.

Heard the new Meshuggah this morning. Really impressed on first listen. Denser than obZen and not as Tool-damaged, and/but it's not Chaosphere 2 or anything like that. In fact, it might be their most human album to date - there are drum tracks on a few songs that actually sound like drums, in a room, being hit with actual sticks by a living drummer. I made it all the way through on the first try, and definitely want to hear it again soon - that's a first for me with Meshuggah. I've always kind of admired them from a distance and only rarely felt the need to actually push through a whole record. (That said, they were ferocious live when I saw them around the time of Catch 33.

I got this last year from a publicist I assume but didn't get to it til now. Trad 80s metal which I am fucking loving, I'm going to take some glucosamine for my knees and then get the fuck down to this